THE REC — Wherever Steve Borthwick watched Bath’s incredible 43-41 win over Northampton Saints to reach the last four of the Champions Cup, the England head coach must surely have revelled in the depth of attacking talent available to his national team. He just needs to commit to harnessing it the right way, from this point on and into the World Cup next year. If Borthwick is not keen on doing that, he should hand the reins to someone who will.
Borthwick lives in Bath, but whether or not he made it to The Rec on Friday night makes no difference. He can have the evidence on his laptop in the blink of a broadband download and, if he is wise, luxuriate in the way Northampton play to space, and penetrate defences, and Bath by contrast build scores with more of a pressure approach.
The best of both worlds is the exciting prospect of what Borthwick could be able to put together with England – if he knows how to.
Okay, yes, we know Finn Russell is Scottish, and Thomas du Toit is South African – to name a couple of Bath’s prominent talents as they continue to pursue a league-and-European double, now in their first Champions Cup semi-final since 2006, against either Bordeaux-Begles or Toulouse on the weekend of 3 May.
But there were also more than 25 England internationals or England-qualified youngsters, across the two line-ups at The Rec on Friday night, as the top two clubs in the domestic Prem served us a blistering treat.
Weirdly, we had seen this spectacular match once already this year: four weeks ago in Paris, when England lost 48-46 to France in the last round of the Six Nations.
There is a review of England’s performances in that tournament as a whole going on at the Rugby Football Union, to be completed in the next fortnight, it is understood.
The panel of enquiry, who are consulting Borthwick and senior players among others, will need to conclude why England lost to Scotland, Ireland and Italy by playing misfiring, unfulfilling rugby, and only pulled out a more flowing style against the French.
If enough of the bad stuff can be explained away, and enough of the good stuff was down to Borthwick, that’s fine, he can roll on in charge.
But it must be with a severe commandment from his employers to keep at the style we saw at Stade de France, and again in this match, of insistent running and clever support play and finding soft shoulders with heads-up handling.
The kind of handling that had Northampton’s beaten head coach Phil Dowson gasping in admiration afterwards about a blind pass from Fraser Dingwall to Fin Smith that made a try for Tom Lockett, and the one-handed flick by young No.9 Archie McParland in a try by Dingwall – both in a stunning first half that ended with Saints 35-26 up.
We saw Tommy Freeman running free in the way Saints supporters have become used to, but less often seen in the white of England of late.
There were also heartening evidence that Guy Pepper has not been undermined by being in and out of the England side during the Six Nations, because the young Bath flanker has shown a renewed zip in his carrying in the past couple of weeks, making direct carries, and he was integral to Bath gradually reining their visitors in during a punishingly physical second half.
And of course that brings us to Henry Pollock, who was bang at it for Saints from his try in the third minute right through to his pivotal yellow card on 72 minutes when Irish referee Andy Brace decided a ruck had formed and Pollock had no rights to be jackalling.
The TV pundits reckoned Bath’s Santi Carreras had sealed off before Pollock dabbled with his hands, but the replays needed to give viewers more angles to be certain.
Meanhile those of us who made it in person to a raucously noisy Rec watched as Bath’s delirious fans waved Pollock off with lusty “cheerios”.
If the 21-year-old is destined for greatness he will have to learn where that dividing line stands.
For Borthwick, it’s a very different challenge – to throw off his natural shackles and be more like Sam Vesty.
The Northampton attack coach used a recent BBC radio appearance to criticise how long it took England to open up in the Six Nations, and to sit near Vesty in the Bath press benches was to hear how the first words escaping his lips are often: “It’s on!”
From Ben Spencer, the venerable scrum-half who maybe surprised England supporters in Paris with a livelier side to his game in tandem with Smith, to the youthful Billy Sela and Kepu Tuipulotu in the Bath pack, there is much to be excited about.
Over to you, Mr Borthwick.
